Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters in this story that appear in the hit syndicated TV show Dark Angel, owned and created by James Cameron. I do, however, own any and all original characters appearing here. If you wish to use them, please ask me first.
Summary: It's finally happened – Asha has discovered the dark secret her brother carries – but not the way Asha had imagined it.
Twisted Angel
By
Brin"I'm all in favor of keeping dangerous weapons out of the hands of fools. Let's start with typewriters." - Frank Lloyd Wright (1868-1959)
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So I'm a little left of centerI'm a little out of tune
Some say I'm paranormal
So I just bend their spoon
Who wants to be ordinary
In a crazy, mixed-up world?
I don't care what they're saying
As long as I'm your girl
Chapter 4: Halloween Town
Asha Katherine Thompson, her shoulder-length hair pulled back from her face, adjusted the orange glow-in-the-dark pumpkin on her window so that it hung straight. She was dressed in an all-black outfit and a bottle of orange hair-color spray sat half-forgotten on the floor. It was October 30th, the day before Asha's third favorite day of the year (third only to her birthday and Christmas), and the 16-year-old was in an especially giddy mood this year. The past few weeks had been boring and busy; she hadn't had much time to sit down and think about her brother and his mysterious ways – and now that Halloween had finally rolled around, she didn't feel like thinking about it at all. The only thing on her mind was her school's annual Halloween Masquerade Party. She and her friends had a crazy plan to dress as Roman women would dress to attend what a bacchanalia* - white faces with dark eye and lip makeup with skimpy outfits. Asha had also picked up a pair of red temporary contacts, just for effect.
When she had finished the task of applying demon stickers and such to her window, she happily stumbled down the stairs and plopped on the living room couch to check for the weather forecast – the party was to be held outside in the school courtyard, and if it rained their bacchanalia outfits would be ruined, along with the rest of the dance.
"…the skies are cloudless and the weekend looks good from where we are…" said the forecaster.
Satisfied, Asha clicked off the TV and was just about to hop back up to her room when she heard her mom call, "Asha! Could you take this up to your brother's room?"
"Why doesn't he do it?" she responded, halfway to the stairs.
"He's out with Natalie. Please?"
Asha froze as a light bulb turned on in her head. "You mean… he's not home…"
"I just said he's not, Asha!" said Mrs. Thompson in exasperation as she emerged from the kitchen with a basket of recently-cleaned clothes. "Take these up there and don't bother his things; you know how touchy he gets!"
"Yes, ma'am," replied Asha, putting on her best pout as she dragged her feet up the stairs. As soon as she was sure her mother had returned to the laundry, she hurried into her brother's room and locked the door behind her.
Clothes were strewn about the floor carelessly and a long-forgotten moldy sandwich sat on his desk next to his computer. The screensaver was flashing the time and date in several different colors. Asha made this her first target, pushing the sandwich aside as she took a seat in his office chair and moved the mouse. Instantly, the computer asked for a password. Here, Asha kicked herself; of course Cade's computer would require a password! She wracked her brain for possible answers, but all the obvious ones were rejected – NATALIE, ALIE, NAT, CADE, CHRIS, ASHA, THOMPSON, BILLY, HANNAH, etc. She was quite sore at the dumb machine after typing in about fifty different guesses, only to come up empty-handed. After a few more precious minutes had ticked by, the figured out the password. It was something only she and Cade would know, and in later years she would briefly regret ever coming to realize the password that opened the next chapter of her life.
When Cade was eight and Asha five or six, they had enjoyed playing games with each other – like the 'Guess the Imaginary Friend's Name' game, or the 'Let's See Who Can Make Up the Stupidest Word' game. The former game was the one that held the password. The last time they had ever played that game was when Cade finally realized he could make up an outrageously uncommon, strange name and Asha would never guess it. After he told her the answer, they had fought over the rules and never played it again. The name was Renska.
OOOOOO
Asha stared at the little circles in the password box for a long time before pressing the 'Enter' key. Instantly, the screensaver disappeared and the desktop took its place. There was the basics – the Recycle Bin, My Computer, My Documents, etc – and then there was one other folder titled 'README.' She opened it and it asked for another password, but Asha guessed it easily enough since Cade obviously didn't think anyone would be able to access the folder and had gotten careless.
A-L-I-E.
The folder opened and Asha found hundreds upon hundreds of documents. She opened one and found the profile of a man beaten to death by the police. At the bottom of his profile, in hurriedly-written chicken scratch were the words BURN ALL FILES.
Her heart was pounding against her ribcage, sweat droplets forming on her forehead. The teenager was well-aware of what she had stumbled upon, and her heart knew it as well. She felt as if a giant, ominous door of reality had been opened, spreading its darkness over her, and she was to be forever stuck in its grasp. A lump formed in her throat and she gulped several times to loosen it.
She found her hand moving without her mind's permission; opening this file, closing that one, scrolling down this and hiding that. Her eyes saw things she knew was never meant to see – from mutilated bodies to reports of families driven to starvation from intense, illegal taxation. Immediately, she knew why her brother fought against the corrupt police force so passionately. This wasn't just unjustly-dealt tickets; these were lives that had been toyed with and ruined without a second thought. If she had the power, she wouldn't let it continue either.
…and then she found the file marked "EYESONLY.doc" At first she thought it meant something about being for a certain person's eyes only, but when she opened it she found a transcript. It read:
DO NOT ATTEMPT TO ADJUST YOUR SET. THE CABLE HACK WILL LAST EXACTLY SIXTY SECONDS. IT CANNOT TRACED, IT CANNOT BE STOPPED, AND IT IS THE ONLY FREE VOICE LEFT IN THE CITY. THE SECTOR POLICE HAVE BEEN PILLAGING INNOCENT FAMILIES' LIFE SAVINGS FOR YEARS—
Asha jumped in surprise as she heard the doorknob jiggle.
"Hey! Who's in there?!" boomed the furious voice of her brother from the outside. "If you don't open this door right now I'm going to break it down!"
Her heart thudded harder and faster than ever before as she raced to close all the documents. The young woman's speed was greatly hindered, however, by the several "Would you like to save?" windows that popped up on ever other document. She couldn't close them fast enough, and her brother was banging on the door with both fists now.
"Open this door! Right now! I know you're in there!"
Asha's hands were shaking by the time she finally closed the last document. She then right-clicked on the desktop and opened up a menu to put the screensaver back on—
But it was too late.
BANG!
Asha screamed in surprise as the doorknob was shot off of the door. It then swung open and a very, very furious Cade stepped into the room holding a 35 Glock in his hand. He took one look at Asha, his screensaver-less computer, and cocked the trigger of the gun.
"You… you… YOU!" He shouted, lunging for her.
"Cade, Cade no!" she yelled as she moved out of the way, towards the window. This was a bad move, however, and she found herself backed up between a rock and very hard place.
Her brother was standing there, gun in hand, glaring at her with fiery eyes. These were not the eyes of her brother, were they? They blazed bright with anger so intense that Asha could barely stand looking into them, as if they would suck her up and she would never be seen again. He was suddenly very powerful. He held head high and his body tense. His knees were slightly bent, readying him to spring at a moment's notice. Then there was that black, ominous gun that was held in such a way that it seemed like an extension of her brother's muscled arm – he was, in no way, unused to using that gun.
"You come into my room, hack into my computer, read my files, and expect me to just shake it off?!" he said in a fierce voice before she could speak. "Asha, you have no idea what you just did! No idea! You haven't the slightest clue what've gotten yourself into!" He shut the damaged door behind him. "I tried to appease your curiosity by putting the ticket into your pocket so you would think you had gone to the movies. I didn't say much about you spying on me with the police officer, and I fixed my car to further your belief that you had gone to the movies. Logan let you come with us to the market. Yet you didn't think, Asha… and now you're in trouble."
"Cade… Cade, don't hurt me," she whimpered as he moved forward. "Cade, I'm sorry!"
"Asha, you don' t understand what you've just gotten yourself into," he repeated. Keeping the gun trained on her forehead, he walked over to his desk and removed from it a bag with a piece of cloth inside. When he removed it, a horrible smell reached Asha's nose.
"Wait! Wait, no! Don't do this!"
Cade, ignoring her pleas, pinned her against the wall in one powerful movement and forced the cloth over her nose and mouth. Instantly, Asha fell into the oblivion of unconsciousness and slumped to the ground.
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Asha awoke with a start, bolting upright in whatever she was lying in, and hit her head on the low ceiling above her. A string of colorful curses left her lips and looked around. She was sitting in a bunk bed in a dimly-lit room. There was a small window, only about one foot across and half a foot tall, crammed up next to the ceiling. The moon shone in through it, providing the only light in the room. She could hear soft breathing from the bed under hers, and she crept to the edge to peek down into it.
Lying curled up in each other's arms were Cade and Natalie, fast asleep.
"Hey," whispered a voice through the darkness.
Asha jumped, whacking the back of her head on the ceiling again, and looked up to find Billy staring at her from a few feet away. He had been lying in a cot that had been hidden by the shadows, but had now stood so that they were at eye level. There was a gun in his hand.
"Come with me. Don't wake them up," ordered Billy, gesturing with the shotgun to the sleeping figures on the lower bunk bed.
"Okay," she replied as she carefully climbed off the top bunk and followed Billy out of the dark room.
As soon as the door closed behind them, Billy said, "Wash up. There's a change of clothes in there. When you're done I'll take you down to get something to eat." He gestured to the door directly across from them.
"Um… okay," replied Asha, glancing up and down the hall. The ceilings were white and the floor was off-white, making the entire corridor painful to the eyes at such an hour of the night. She quickly went into the bathroom to escape the brightness of the hall and heard the door lock behind her. She was a prisoner.